DOLPHIN RESEARCH CENTERThirty years of Teaching, Learning, Caring for marine mammals and the environment we share.DRC is a nonprofit marine mammal education and research facility located in the heart of the fabulous Florida Keys. Home to a family of Atlantic bottlenose dolphins and California sea lions, DRC offers a variety of educational, fun, exciting programs, and close-up interactions. We hope you enjoy our blog!

Monday, November 19, 2012

Dolphin Research Center is all about stories. We love to
share the stories about our family with guests, whether inside of the facility,
at the grocery store, on a trip, or anywhere people will listen! Our stories
began before DRC was even a facility. Dolphins have been living on our grounds
since the 1940’s, so as you can imagine there’s a lot to talk about.

Many of our stories begin with the 1960’s movie, Flipper.
The man who initially started the grounds as a dolphinarium, Milton Santini,
lived here with his favorite dolphin Mitzi. Being a beautiful dolphin, Mitzi
became the face of the original Flipper. But a lot of people don’t know that
there were at least three dolphins that played Flipper!

As we stand in front of our large lagoon dedicated to the
maternity pod that currently lived at DRC, and tell the account about Santini
and Mitzi, people become entranced with our story. Then, as if on cue, Tursi
jumps out of the water and screams almost as if to say “enough about Mitzi,
it’s time to talk about me!” The conversation quickly turns to Tursi, who is the
product of a Flipper romance between two of Mitzi’s stunt doubles, and her four
offspring that live here as well. Depending on which dolphins are currently in
view, or where you’re standing on the causeway, the conversation branches out
in a million different directions. Dolphin Research Center is a never ending
book of anecdotes, which we love to share with anyone who will listen.

Then, the scoop turns to us. By us, I mean you and me.
People often ask “How did you find out about DRC?”, “What brought you here?”,
or “What did you study to get a job working with dolphins?” The misconception
is that most people think that to have any possibility of working with marine
mammals, we all must have studied Marine Biology. Interestingly enough, almost
everyone at DRC has a different educational background. Ranging from Zoology to
Communications to Psychology, everyone’s background brings something unique to
the DRC table.

So what brought us all here? Probably the same thing that
brought you here; a love of marine mammals. Many have been in love with dolphins
since they were a child. Some have always had a connection to marine mammals
that branched out to interest in their intelligence, athleticism, and nature. Everyone’s
story is different, but the end result is that at some point we all chose to
walk through DRC’s doors and see what’s on the other side.

Every day, we’re honored to have new guests visiting Dolphin
Research Center. Regardless of what brought you through our doors our hope is
that you, as a one time visitor, will see what we see in our facility and
become a member, and that you’ll keep up with our family. Many of our one time
visitors become members, then volunteers, then staff. They share the same
enthusiasm for the dolphins as someone on their first visit.

We’d like to know how you, our readers, found out about DRC.
What brought you here and why do you continue to stay updated with us?

Thursday, November 15, 2012

As the seasons change and the air cools down, ever so
slightly, in the Florida Keys, we see a shift of the amount of people who are
visiting and interacting with the dolphins. The facility is less congested, and
the dolphins are doing fewer programs than they normally do during our busier
times of the year. It’s a mini vacation, for both the dolphins and our staff.
Yet we get anxious to have more people walk through our doors. Not because we
want the facility to be full, or we want people to participate in programs, but
because we want to show off our dolphin family and continue to share knowledge
about marine mammals, ocean conservation, and all things dear to DRC’s heart.

During this time, we are able focus more on educational
programs outside of DolphinLab and DolphinCamp. We encourage schools in Monroe
County to bring their students to the facility, or we ask them to seek out the
Education staff to enter their classrooms and bring a piece of DRC into their
schools. As always, DRC believes that if people know more about marine mammals,
they’ll strive to protect them.

In several weeks, we’ll go back to being as busy as we were
before. Holidays like Thanksgiving and Christmas bring in lots of new guests
and potential members who we can share DRC’s philosophies with. People travel
from all over the world to visit us, and we can’t help but be excited to meet
new friendly faces and create more memories that will last a lifetime.

Thursday, November 8, 2012

During a recent Dolphin
Encounter, a member pointed out that Tursi shakes her head back and forth
as if she’s saying “no” when a trainer asks her to do something.They asked if she did that because she didn’t
want to do what the trainer had asked. Her trainer, Sarah, explained that Tursi
shows her excitement in different ways. Sometimes she shakes her head in a
manner that says “What are we going to do next!?” or she does a chomping
behavior we call an alligator when she’s really into a session. To an untrained
eye, a dolphin shaking their head “no” may mean no, but those of us who work at
Dolphin Research Center spend a lot of time watching our dolphins and getting
to know each and every one of their dolphinalities.

Dolphins will do the same behavior both when they’re playing
and when they’re agitated. A great example of this is tail slapping. A dolphin
may slap their tail for attention, to show dominance, or because they want to
be left alone. The way to differentiate is to see in what context the behavior
occurred.A tail slap during a play
session when a trainer is spending time with a dolphin is simply a way to get
attention. However, a tail slap when no one else is in the lagoon means something
entirely different. It could be a simple sign of hierarchy or it could simply
mean they have something on their tail that they want to get off like a piece
of seaweed.

Getting to know our dolphins takes time and is extremely
important for both trainers and the animals. Just like humans, dolphins have
baseline behaviors. These behaviors are the way they normally act. For Tursi,
chomping and shaking her head are normal behaviors. They come as naturally as
her loud scream when she’s engaging in aerial behaviors. We study all the
dolphins and have identified baselines on numerous behaviors they exhibit.

Tuesday, November 6, 2012

People typically visit Dolphin Research Center to see our
dolphins and California sea lions. However, there is another animal at DRC that
gets a lot of attention; the iguana!

At DRC, we are committed to giving a forever home to all of
our animals, and this includes the iguanas that have made themselves at home
here on DRC grounds. Years ago, iguanas were released from their families’ home
and now they reside in the Florida Keys even though they are not native
animals, rather they are considered invasive.DRC has an extensive spay/neuter program to help keep the population
under control. To those of us who are used to them, they’re just another part
of DRC’s family. To visitors from other areas, even other countries, they’re absolutely
fascinating. It’s a daily occurrence to see cameras pointed towards an iguana.

The green iguana can weigh up to 18 pounds and can reach a
length of five to seven feet. Although, none of the iguanas currently living at
DRC are that large, a couple are still larger than a small dog. Its hard, long
tail is used for balance, but also as a weapon. We always tell guests to stay far
enough away when walking behind them because if they whip their tail, it can be
extremely painful.

You may be wondering, do the dolphins and iguanas get along
together? Dolphins seem to be very interested in them and it isn’t rare to see
an iguana swimming in a lagoon filled with curious dolphins. When this happens,
the dolphins go crazy and love to follow it in the water. Every once in a
while, a dolphin will bump at the iguana to give it a little scare, but for the
most part the dolphins are just inquisitive about this strange little animal
swimming in their world.

If you see an iguana on our grounds, feel free to take pictures
but don’t get too close. They are still wild animals and should not be fed or
pet. They’re pretty content to pose for a photo and mosey on their way.